Rodeo-Chediski wildfire: A summary of impacts

Abstract

The 462,600 acre Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire of 2002 was the largest known in Arizona's history and the ninth largest wildfire in the United States (National Interagency Fire Center 2009) in terms of the 462,600 acres impacted by the burn. It damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources, disrupted hydrologic functioning, and altered loadings of flammable fuels in much of the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests exposed to the bum. An opportunity to study the impacts of this wildfire on ecosystem resources, hydrologic functioning, and flammable fuels presented itself on the Stermer Ridge Watersheds near Heber, Arizona. These watersheds were instrumented as a cooperative endeavor of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, and the Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, to obtain baseline information on watersheds located on sedimentary soils (Ffolliott and Baker 1977). This information complemented the results obtained from "experimental watersheds" located in ponderosa pine forests on basaltic soils. One of the Stermer Ridge Watersheds was exposed to a high severity (stand-replacing) fire and the other to a low severity (stand-modifying) fire (Ffolliott et al. 2008, 2009). This five-year study (2002 through 2007) was initiated shortly after cessation of the wildfire and continued through implementation of salvage cutting and fuel reduction treatments on the watershed burned by a high severity fire.

Citation

Ffolliott, Peter F.; Stropki, Cody L.; Chen, Hui; Neary, Daniel G. 2010. Rodeo-Chediski wildfire: A summary of impacts. Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and The Southwest. 40: 27-30.